Tables of contents, indexes, and enhanced text using the TEI standards

Tables of contents and indexes

Tables of contents and indexes (geographical indexes, author indexes, indexes of references to people, etc.), which are coded in simplified TEI, are very useful tools for viewing and browsing documents.

Where they exist in a primary document, they are recreated in the corresponding digital document so as to provide specific access points (generically referred to as a “Table of contents” within the Gallica viewing interface).

The conversion process involves the manual input and tagging of each entry. Each table of contents or index is divided into major sections, within which each entry (heading and target page number) is tagged as a hyperlink to the target page to which it refers. Before this is possible, the pages making up the table(s) of contents or index(es) must first be identified in the refNum file.

BnF’s document digitization process can also manage “multi-volume” tables of contents (where one entry is linked to one or more pages in another digital document).

Example tables of contents within Gallica:

• Le monde des adolescents / par Victor Henrion
• Précis d'analyse microscopique des denrées alimentaires : caractères, procédés d'examen, altérations et falsifications / par V. Bonnet,...
• Physiologie du goût / par Brillat Savarin ; illustrée par Bertall...

Enhanced text

As an experiment, the Revue de Synthèse has been fully encoded in simplified TEI. This text version of the document supports more reliable searches than OCR-generated conversions, as well as enabling accurate navigation both within each volume and between volumes.

This has been achieved by tagging structural elements of the text (major headings, chapters, images, formulas, quotations, footnotes, cross-references, etc.).

Examples in Gallica:

• page contenant des notes de bas de page
• page avec une image insérée dans le texte

A version in image format is also available via Gallica.

Use of simplified TEI at BnF

BnF began to use TEI encoding in its projects during the late 1990s. These projects used the third edition of TEI (P3) in its simplified version in DTD form, and in particular the 1996 French translation of this edition.

Simplified TEI is a selection of the most essential and commonly used elements, attributes, and parameters of TEI.

Mandatory tags consist of the following:

• The full range of mandatory elements and attributes for all genres of document, which are used to transcribe text. A simple TEI document includes the following elements:
  • < front >: includes all introductory elements (headers, title pages, prefaces, dedications, etc.) found before the start of the text itself
  • < group >: groups together more than one individual text or group of texts
  • < body >: groups together the complete body of an individual text, excluding any introductory elements and appendices
  • < back >: groups together all appendices following the main text
• a header, which includes all information related to document creation and management (authors and their roles, language used, context, classification, and text descriptors), links with other sources, and version history

Base tags were chosen from various categories of texts, the main categories being prose, poetry, plays, transcribed speech, dictionaries, and terminological information.

A given set of tags is usually used to encode texts belonging to a specific genre. Base tags therefore determine the composition of the encoded text, in accordance with the desired interpretation.

Divisions defined in the DTD denote parts or sections of text in line with the base structure selected. Every object, such as “chapters”, “sections”, and “acts”, have a defined place within the logical structure of the document. While the names given to these objects may vary within the primary document for cultural or usage-related reasons, TEI considers them to be the same type of element – namely, a division (

Example of structural divisions within a text

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A number of specific tags are used to encode special parts of a text and manage links.

For more info

sur la TEI simplifiée : une introduction au codage des textes électroniques en vue de leur échange
(P3 edition, French translation, 1996)